Site of Dr.-Moses Waddel School Offered to Long Cane Forest Unit
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
project to collect these relics and place His precocity attractedi much nonotice, Home he returned with glowing ac them where they would be safe so much so, that, although William counts of the Georgia country. Twenty from fire and accessible to the public. Waddel was a poor man, he was years had passed since William and Site of Dr.-Moses Waddel School To put into effect the generous of finally persuaded to undertake the Mary Waddel had left Ireland with fer of the Presbyterian church at Wil expense of sending his son to Clio©s their faces set toward Georgia. Fate lington, no one has been more in Nursery, a grammar school that had had intervened, and they had settled. Offered to Long Cane Forest Unit terested or active than Albert Gibert, recently been opened in the neighbor instead, in North Carolina. Now after , a member of the congregation and a hood by the Rev. Dr. James Hall. all these years Georgia was to re 1 trustee for the academy property. It Moses Waddel entered this school in ceive them an4 give them a home, for might be interesting here to note that October, 1778, at the age of eight, and upon hearing what a Promised Land By Presbyterians of WillingtonlMr. Gibert is a direct descendant of by the summer of 17M, he had com it was, they decided to move thither the nephew of the Rev. Louis Gibert. pleted the work of the school. During as soon as possible. H would take "Pastor of the Desert" (the Desert, a his years in this school he was taught some time to get ready for the move, Beventeen-Acre Tract Includes Not Only "Campus" remote region in Southern France by a succession of divinity students, and Moses Waddel was urged by his 11 all of whom were most proficient parents to wait and accompany them of Noted Academy But Old Church and Graveyard, teachers. From 1780 to 1782, the school on the difficult journey, but the young Master©s Study, Though Much Dilapidated, Still i767heherded «« of p«- was closed on account of the pene man was impatient. He had tasted of tration of British soldiery into this freedom, and it had pone to his head, Standa-Many Men Who Achieved Power and section of the state, with the attendant so that, despite their entreaties, he Fame in Southeast Were Pupils of Extraordinary .,, moreover, this an- demoralization of all peaceful pur oarted with hi* uarents and set on* Gtbert©s. Pierre Gibert. suits, so that, in all. Moses Waddel was ahead of them for Georgia. But mis Teacher Who Was Later to Be President of Univer- whowiiu was«< » .._lrumental in inducing in attendance at Clio©s Nursery only fortune dogged his footsteps, and at ^ - Doctor Waddel to establish his school four years. Yet in that time he had last, in deep repentance for his dis sity of Georgia. / / - ^ fe. at*» Willington. ......» . This- warm-hearted and become a finished Greek and Latin J . : :_ _ «*_ —— -Urn..,, remain Art al_ obedience?, he returned to his parents, entertaining Frenchman remained al- j scholar, had completed arithmetic, who by that time had arrivea safely ways a staunch friend to the institu- geometry, geography, moral philoso- in Green county, Georgia. Moses Wad- BY MBS. STEPHEN PUOKETTK. tion. and in seeking to benefit his phy and criticism, and, it might be del saw in the troubles that had over community by getting Doctor Waddel added. !iad acquired a sound knowi taken him God©s chastisement for hav the little doctor, and they app re, he gave to the edge of the Bible. Compare this "I wilt say of the Lord, He is my conscientiously his methods and his ing gone against his parents© wishes, incalculable advantage thorough and heavy intellectual and he resolved then and there never refuge and my fortress: my God; in routine, but the results were but a regimen with what a 14 year old boy Him will I trust" parody on what had been achieved be again to repeat such an offense. some influences from the today has acquired in our public In 1788 he opened a school in this If there is one forsaken spot more fore. Knowledge, insight, methods, } school, for Moses Waddel was barely thfM were all good, but only when pious and energe part of the,country, and here we see desolate than all others, it it a for New Bordeaux and the equally pious 14. Many a present day seventh grade the beginning of that spiritual strug saken schoolhouse, a place where trained through the motivating per- s*oality of Moses Waddel did they and thrifty Scotch-Irish of the neigh pupil, average age 14 years, cannot gle that was to continue until it re youth, vigorous and vibrant, has boring Calhrjun settlement. Further-1 read serious English intelligently, and solved itaeU by his decision to en striven anjd frolicked, has reached out become remarkable in their results. ", ** fmm th«»<* *1"" « *»"* mimi*i**j what does the smattering of history Infleed. it is in the personality of this ter the ministry. Despite his manly eagerly to lay hold on life and learn came some of" the" most celebrated of that he gets amount to, or the little bearing, Moses Waddel was only 18, ing, then gone its way to return no preacher-teacher that we must look for the unusual the magical factor Doctor Waddel©s pupils, chief among taste of elementary science? In com and the community in which hs school more. whom were John C. Calhoun and parison with this 18th century school. This, perhaps, is why old Willing- that wrought wonders. was located seems to have been a gay While not overbearing or antago the greatly beloved James Louis Peti- our public schools seem to get small and godless backwoods settlement. ton (a country community now in gru, whose home, "Badwelt," was results. But to return to the subject The youth of the teacher responded McCorrnick county, but once a part of nistically dogmatic. Mooes Waddel©s of tills sketch: moral and religious convictions were only a few miles from Willington. The with an eagerness that disturbed him Abbeville) produces such a depressed mother of James Louis Petigru was For a few months after finishing at feeling of desolation and loss, for the profound and rigid. His faith in to the frivolities of the neighborhood. God©s power, guidance, and care (a the daughter of the Rev. Louis Gibert, Clio©s Nursery. Moses Waddel at Terpsichore beckoned with a strange chief interest of the nlace, its very above referred to, and it will be re tended an English school to perfect reason for being and its crowning leith won through bitter spiritual allurement, that made him yield to struggle and conflict) was so firmly called that it was because of his himself in studies he had slighted at invitations to the weekly dances, only glory, was a school, a boys© school French extraction that Petigru the Latin school. Then, in October, to return home after each affair tor that rose to highest fame, only to fixed at last that all the utterances 1784, being 14 years, three months of perish with its creator. Today the site and actions of his life were marked changed the spelling of his name from mented by the thought that he was by a peculiarly comp^Hing confidence the English Pettigrew. age, he began his career as a teacher. doing wrong to participate in these of this abandoned school is drear, in With his father©s consent he had ac wild and wicked doings. After a long deed. Its woodland solitudes, that once and assurance. He Was doing God©s Already an interest in old Willing- | cepted a school 15 miles from home. work here on eartK, he believed, and ton and its redoubtable founder has ing © and bitter struggle between desire and heard the droning of endless class The Hunting Creek school. Shortly conscience, h©c at last was able to room recitations, that rang with for the strength and light to do it well been dimly manifested here and there before this,s, he had been forced to de youthful shouts and hearty laughter, he leaned to a divine source. It was over the state, and it is with the hope muster courage to decline invitations this combination of consecration and of quickening this interest that this cline an appointment as assistant in to these parties, and to fortify himself are silent now, and a spirit lonely structor in the academy at Cam- in his resolve, he moved to the home and reminiscent seems to brood there. faith that made the personality of article purposes to present as faith den, S. C. His father had refused to Dr. Moses Waddel, schoolmaster Moses Waddel at once profound and fully as possible a detailed sketch of of a pious and good man, and at night sanction his taking a place so far drowned his distractions in a forced and Presbyterian minister, the founder effective. Though many of the youths the life and labors of Moses Waddel. away, arguing that the extreme youth of Willington. and the wminftqn he taught disagreed with his doc Especially for parents and teachers concentration on his classical studies. of his son and the distractions of town More and more he turned, too, to academy, was, perhaps, SouflT Caro- trines (some even denying all re this story should contain facts and life might prove disastrous to the un lina©s greatest teacher. By some he ligion), they all respected his faith suggestions inviting consideration.